Counselling and Mediation history
Anthony lives in the Northern Rivers and has been a psychologist for the past 25 years. He holds a Masters in Counselling with a particular focus upon couple & family counselling and has worked as a relationship, child and family counsellor. During this time he has worked extensively with separating families as a mediator and Family Consultant with the Family Courts, and is a Registered Family Dispute Resolution Provider with the Attorney-General’s Department. Anthony has been conducting parenting mediations since the late 1990’s and has completed over 2000 mediations, both privately and across a range of services, including NSW Legal Aid, Queensland Legal Aid, the Family Courts, Relationships Australia and Interrelate as well as the early Family Relationship Centres.
Family Consultant History
Anthony was a Family Consultant (Family Report writer) for the Family Courts for 12 years, being employed in-house at Lismore and Brisbane Registries from 2008-2011 as well as continuing privately as an external Regulation 7 Family Consultant until 2020. This involved writing a large number of Family Reports for the Court on parenting matters, including appearing in Court and being cross examined on a regular basis.
Legally Assisted Mediation
Anthony specializes in Legally Assisted mediation where parents have their solicitors present during the sessions, either prior to Court proceedings to avoid the need for this, or while proceedings are underway. This allows more scope to safely address complex issues in mediation such as drug and alcohol use, mental health issues and the impacts of domestic and family violence. In this model parents are also able to seek legal advice during sessions and engage more effectively in reality testing on Court expectations.
Child and Relationship focus
Anthony’s background as a psychologist brings an understanding to mediation of the relationship dynamics and emotions that can often underlie and maintain conflict between separated parents. In his role as a report writer, he has spoken with a large number of children whose parents were in dispute and going through the Family Courts. This insight assists in creating a genuine child focus in sessions. and in helping parents understand the impacts of their behaviour and their conflict upon their children.
Family Group Conferencing / Direct Personal Response & Restorative Engagement work
Anthony has also been conducting Family Group Conferences for NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) and privately in complex child protection matters for the past 5 years, preparing families and facilitating their meetings with DCJ where the family members make decisions together on how to keep children with their parents and within their families.
Anthony has been facilitating Restorative Engagement work and Direct Personal Responses since 2017, facilitating acknowledgment and apologies for people reporting abuse in the Defence Forces through the highly respected Restorative Engagement Defence Commonwealth Ombudsman’s model. Anthony is also a facilitator on the Government panel available to participants of the National Redress scheme. Anthony has also assisted people in Direct Personal Responses with Victims Services in NSW and directly with Churches in the Northern Rivers. This has involved facilitating conferences for survivors who have experienced abuse in foster care, as residents of children’s homes and directly from clergy.